I prefer to hit tab once, and have everything line up like it's supposed to, than accidentally miss hitting space the fourth time, or hitting it an extra time, and ending up with code that's all over the place. And, I prefer hitting tab once over hitting space four times anyday.

In most IDEs, you can configure it to replace tabs with x number of spaces.

Naturally I didn't feel inspired enough to read all the links for you, since I already slaved away for long hours under a blistering sun pressing the search button after typing four whole words! - Quzah

You. Fetch me my copy of the Wall Street Journal. You two, fight to the death - Stewie

>>In most IDEs, you can configure it to replace tabs with x number of spaces.
Ah yes, but the point was that it would be convenient to be able to hit 'tab' in the code editor, and it would insert a tab character instead of changing the focus

Actually, I've experimented with the tab-replaced-with-spaces thing, but gave up on it because I'd already been using tab for the first half of the project, and I was getting disoriented with hitting backspace 4 times and realizing that it was actually a tab character, or hitting it once and realizing that it was four spaces

So what!
It will look exactly like it did when you saved it.
It will look exactly like it did in your co-workers IDE.
It will look exactly like it did in every editor know to man (that uses a mono-space font).

That's the point of using spaces - it looks the same everywhere - even on C Board!!

For those of you who think that "using spaces" means "hitting the space bar"..........damn...

gg

[EDIT]
Ok, so you don't like hitting backspace more than once....I hit up and return since my IDE auto-indents for me.
[/EDIT]